The ferocity and horrific nature of the 7 October 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel shocked the tiny Jewish nation and the world.
The scope of the attack, and its abruptness was astonishing. At least 1,200 people are now known to have died that day, however the numbers of dead have varied widely. So too have accounts of what took place.
There is no doubt a huge number of people were shot dead on 7 October, mostly civilians. Reports have emerged that civilians were tortured, babies were beheaded, and women raped. One IDF commander told a reporter from i24 News that forty babies had been killed.
Missing in all accounts, whether by the government, the Israeli army, or even Wikipedia, are details of the response, other than it was lacking. Despite the alarm being raised at around 6:30am Saturday 7 October, the army’s response, from several accounts, took “hours,” in some locations from between eight and ten hours. No explanation has been given as to the delay. No details have been provided of what the response was or how it unfolded. Whether helicopter gunships were deployed, and if so what they fired on. There were reports of bodies being burned, suggestions being that Hamas militants either burned bodies, or worse, burned people alive.
Clearly major clashes eventually took place as the Israeli army confirmed they had recovered the bodies of 1,500 Hamas fighters inside Israel on 7 October, and a number of fighters were captured. Given the large number of civilians killed in the bombardment and ground invasion that has followed 7 October, and the massive gunfights that must have occurred on 7 October, and taking into consideration claims that soldiers, and personnel engaged in identifying bodies afterwards had difficulty in distinguishing civilians and Hamas fighters because many were wearing the same clothes, difficult questions have to be asked.
Several accounts have emerged of bodies of Hamas operatives being found with instructions to rape and behead, and the Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday told the BBC a copy of Adolf Hitler’s autobiography “Mein Kampf” was discovered in a child’s room used as a base by terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip. “This is the book that led to the Holocaust and the book that led to World War II,” he said. There have been reports too that babies had been kidnapped.
What clearly is missing is any verification process of the claims being made, and even the documenting of the death toll. For example on 10 October 2023, three days after the attack, the Israeli army (IDF) put the death toll at over 900 including 124 soldiers.
Three days later, on 13 October 2023, the Israeli army was saying 1,300 Israelis were killed. The number later went to 1,400. Then late last week it was reduced to 1,200.
Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said on Friday night the original figure was an “initial estimate.” This despite the names of 1,400 people including Israeli army soldiers and Israeli police, and ten Shin Bet members, having been published.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in most statements has emphasized the number of Israelis having been killed at 1,400. In his latest statement referring to the toll, he spoke of “hundreds of Israelis,” killed.
Health officials as at today estimate the number of civilians killed on 7 October as 846, of which 39 were French nationals, 31 Americans, and 34 Thai nationals including others from many countries including a large contingent from Nepal. The number of Israeli civilians would be in the order of the 700s, although that number could be higher as a number of foreigners killed were dual nationals. The Israeli army now puts the IDF death toll for that day at 278, while Israel police say they lost 44 officers, and the Shin Bet, ten.
While the number of Israelis killed has varied widely, the death toll from Gaza appears to have been more accurately calculated and documented with the numbers, names and IDs being tallied by the Palestinian health ministry using information supplied by Gazan hospitals. This will no longer be the case and the toll is unlikely to be updated from hereon due to the closure of a number of hospitals and limited operation of others.
In the aftermath of the attacks on the latest figures, since 8 October 2023, 48 Israelis, all of them soldiers, and 11,360 Palestinians have been killed, including 101 United Nations workers, and 34 journalists.
While the breakdown of the Israeli numbers is not available as there appears to be no official documenting, in Gaza the death toll includes 4,609 children, 3,100 women, and 678 elderly people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. 3,250 people are still missing, believed to be buried in rubble, including 1,700 children, the ministry says. A further 28,200 have been wounded.
What is clear is that many people have died on both sides since the attacks carried out by Hamas on 7 October. The atrocities of that day and all that has followed deserve a much greater understanding of what occurred and why, and how it was responded to.
There are many aspects about the events of 7 October that require urgent and immediate investigation but there appears to be no angling for that by any section of the Israeli government or security and intelligence infrastructure, all of which clearly bear some responsibility for the failings of that day.
From day one when asked, the Israeli prime minister’s office said there would be an investigation but it would be after the war, which it estimated would be a long war.
The military followed suit saying it would learn and analyze what happened, but now it was time for war.
“The IDF is responsible for the security of the state and its civilians, and this past Saturday we did not achieve this. We will learn and analyze what happened, but now it is a time of war. At this difficult time, I want you to know that the IDF is here, the defending force of the State of Israel. With all its might, capabilities, and beyond all, its incredible personnel,” IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said on 12 October 2023.
Witnesses should have been interviewed while memories were fresh, and testimony could be verified. Witnesses who were wounded may have since died. Material collected from Hamas fighters should have been collected by a legal or law enforcement authority, and carefully documented with evidence of how it was found, and by who. Videos initiated by Hamas fighters and Israeli civilians, and journalists, should have been retrieved and documented. Mainstream and social media coverage should have been curated.
Military personnel and intelligence agencies should have begun their own investigations. More than 240 people are still captive in the hands of Hamas and other militant groups. Not only are these real people, in considerable peril, and all attempts should be made to recover them, but they are also crucial witnesses to what happened that day. Yet there appeared to be little focus on their retrieval well into the war, with government and military spokespeople consistently referring to the military bombardment and ground invasion as having only one goal, victory. Talk of the hostages only came days later after families of the hostages began to rally for their release.
The time for an investigation to have begun was 7 October, not months after the war ends when many of those who could have been heard are dead. As the United States immediately offered every assistance including military aid, the FBI could have been elicited to assist in collecting, documenting, preserving, and classifying evidence.
Even when initiated, a commission of inquiry similar to the 9/11 Commission will take months to set up, and will no doubt take years to complete its work, made more difficult by the lack of investigatory efforts now.
The ICC has indicated it will investigate the events of 7 October and the bombardment and ground invasion that followed, however it is unlikely that Israel will cooperate and turn over whatever evidence it does have, or will furnish documents and evidence relating to the attacks or the aftermath. It will not entertain an independent investigation either. In the end the Israeli public will get a narrative initiated and controlled by those whose actions should have been under review by an open, thorough, transparent and immediately-initiated investigation, undertaken by a panel of independent experts.